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Come and See

I’m happy to report that our little one is feeling better. It’s been a very long week where I’ve seen the dawn almost daily. And I’m a night person, so there’s no need to explain how I feel about that.

It seems like there’s so much going on right now. But to highlight one of the many things, we have a special project going on called the Nathanael Project. Who’s Nathanael? Did he found the project?

No. Let’s look at John 1. In this chapter, Philip is the one to originally meet Jesus. Philip has an experience with Jesus, decides to follow Him and then goes back to Nathanael (“ahhhh”), a pre-existing connection, and tells him about Him. Nathanael’s not so convinced, but in verse 46, Philip says, “Come and see.”

So the Nathanael Project is something that cell groups do, where those who are believers and are being discipled target 2-3 of their connections. As a group, we gather all our names and each “Philip” prays for everyone’s Nathanael’s by name everyday.

This is great, but there has to be a “come and see” moment- a goal… not just vague “someday” prayer. So, we pray and pray everyday and work on developing our relationships with those people. After prayer and scheduled fasting, etc., we plan an event at the end of 2-3 months. It’s a big party, and our goal is for every Nathanael to come to that party. During it, we focus specifically on connecting with our Nathanaels and that they can see how awesome Jesus (and church life really is). Of course, there’s an invite to participate in cell group, which is our goal to get them to stick. Once they are integrated, it’s only a matter of time before they decide to follow Jesus and become discipled.

We’re about 3.5 weeks into our Nathanael Project for our cell group.

But what I really love about this is that it’s very focused evangelism. It’s specific prayer for the ripening of certain fruit. Of course, any other we can grab along the way is awesome, but the fact that newer believers are participating in this really reinforces the reality that disciple-making is not for pastors or missionaries. It’s for believers. All of them. And this is not too daunting, it’s just purposed.